Brahma , Vishnu and Shiva are not only at the origin of Brahmanism, Vishnuism and Shaivism, they are three supreme aspects of the ultimate reality, which collaborate with each other not only to keep the universes in harmony but also to give them birth infinitely. 

• Trimurti: “One and three”
• The Trimurti and the Supreme Reality
• Macrocosm and microcosm
• Trimurti as a cycle
• Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva

Trimurti: “One and three”

There is a Christian religious expression which, although it represents a dogma and an incomprehensible mystery, has become familiar to us: ” One and three “. This formula and symbol is not limited only to the Christian world or in any case to that of Western religions, and in fact we can find in India the concept of Trimurti , a term that has also become commonly used in Italian to indicate a power exercised by three different roles .

Literally Trimurti means ” from the triple aspect ” or ” from the triple
image “, typical quality assumed by the Supreme when he decides to manifest himself.

The Trimurti and the Supreme Reality

Let us analyze the concept of the Supreme Being in the context of the Indian wisdom tradition. It can be unrepresentable and devoid of attributes, or it can assume some, becoming active, precisely when it mobilizes to manifest the cosmos through what we are used to calling the ” Creation “. 

This cosmos in which we human beings also exist, perceived by us as three-dimensional, is a dynamic movement of the space-time fabric, a pulsation which, to put it in a bit more scientific terms, “was born” precisely with a Big Bang and it is hypothesized that will go to conflagrate in a Big Crunch . Such phases of this spacetime pulsation, of this cosmic breath, are seen by Hindu culture as cosmic personalities, where the creation of the cosmos is due to the creative power of the god Brahma , the balanced preservation of its forms is due to the conservative power of the god Vishnu , and finally the ability to bring everything back to the original condition of reabsorption is due to the power of the god Shiva . Three different dynamics or personalities of a single entity.

Macrocosm and microcosm

We know that macrocosm and microcosm not only reflect each other but are different configurations of the same underlying reality. In this sense, the three powers described above, personified in the gods Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, are also at work in us . 

After the creation of each individual (Brahma), there are opposing forces that cooperate for its existence. On the one hand there is a centripetal force that tends to keep the configuration of its atoms and its psychological elements constant, a force that therefore preserves (Vishnu), on the other hand we see the effects of a centrifugal force which instead tends to break down the shape fixed and that allows growth and dynamic evolution (Shiva). 

Trimurti as a cycle

In scientific terms we could identify these two forces with anabolic and catabolic processes. We therefore see that Indian wisdom recognizes a supreme role and a basic divinity in each of these forces, unlike many superficial approaches, especially of the modern era, which celebrate only the luxuriance of life and the enjoyment of youth. 

Not only that, it is not a question of venerating as much the force that destroys and reabsorbs forms as the one that creates them and the one that takes care of them, it is also a question of recognizing that they are one reality and that they cannot be separated: not you can have creation without a reabsorption, and each reabsorption ends in a zero full of all the potential to give way to infinite new creations.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva

The god Brahma , from the root Br, or ” to make to grow “, is a figure of Vedic origin , linked to the ancient god Brihaspati, the god of vastness, and to Brahman as an absolute reality. The god Vishnu , the one who pervades everything, or the immanent aspect of Brahman, is the god who incarnates from age to age and descends to Earth to preserve its existence. Finally Shiva , who unites in himself the destructive Vedic god Rudra and the ancient Chiva of the Tamil peoples, means ” propitious “, but also ” he who is not”, Or the one who has no form since no form can become stable around its essence, being the one who dissolves the forms, to reabsorb them and start a new cycle.